This article is a continuation of the article started three hours ago. Because I did not want to create a very long article, I decided to split it in three parts. So, this is the second part of my article.
I have spoken of mistakes when you start blogging and also about the most common of them, which is quitting when you have just started the blog. I want to emphasize now another mistakes that are rarely taken into account by those who have blogs.
The first mistake of which I speak in this article is to post whenever you are in the mood for that. It is true, it’s your site, but simply because it is like a hobby to you, it doesn’t mean that you don’t have to treat your visitors with respect. If you will consider this as a full-time job or at least a part-time one, you will see how rapidly your behaviour and thoughts about this will change. You can say that you can’t consider your blog as being part of your job, nor as a main job. You have another job and blogging is just a passion. Try to think differently: if you post an article today and 50 articles next week, the readers will suspect that is something fishy there. You cannot an article in one day and 50 in another day. You physically can’t. You have to have more time. Even if you are very prolific and creative, talented, you still need some time to think the articles, to insert photos or videos, to add tags and many others.
If you write an article today and you post it today and next week you post 50 articles, the readers might think that you have copied them. But the situation can be other: you wrote the articles, but you had a bad Internet connection and that was the time when you were able to add them on your blog. In this situation, make sure to communicate this to your readers, because they might think as I said above this line. Don’t say Sorry too many times and make sure this will not happen on a regular basis.
Don’t consider that you can do this once in a while, apologize and receive the mercy from your readers, thinking that you are a poor guy with a bad Internet connection. In the article I have read on a very good site: http://www.problogger.net/archives/2009/05/30/warning-do-you-recognize-these-21-blogging-mistakes/, I also found that you must not apologize on a regular basis, thinking that you will be forgiven. The readers are no God. If they see that you write on a regular basis, they will come again and again to read your blog, if they will see that you write today and then you write after a whole week, then they will redirect to other Websites and God knows there are plenty.
If you have created several categories on your site, try to fill them with articles. Try to write equally for your categories. After all, you were the one who created those categories right? It is your blog and you manage it right? So, deal with it now, since you have created 20 categories.
Another mistake: don’t create too many categories. If you have 70 categories on your blog, trust me, even if you write good, your site will be avoided. Why? Because you offer too many pieces of information. Instead of writing 100 articles a day (I wonder who can do that), you can write 10, but of good quality. No one wants to read about a subject that was already discussed by thousands of Websites. I remember when iPhone 4 was released. Even the blogs that normally discuss about cooking, clothing or religion started to talk about this new subject.
Ok, you may sometimes refer to some other thing beside the normal activity of your site. You can create a category called “Hobbies” or “My Passions”, where you can place all sort of information, like the release of a new smartphone. But don’t start discussing about smartphones in a category called “Best dresses in 2010”.
The situation can be inversed. Don’t use few categories. The reader has to be able to make a choice when he enters your site. You have to give them this possibility. If you do not allow them to select from a decent number of categories, the consequence may be the same as before: your visitors will run to other Websites, that give them more freedom in choosing what they want to read.
And the biggest mistake related to the “Category” category, if I can say that, is to not use a category list at all. I entered today a site, which had no categories and no archives. My kind of site… After I discovered where are the articles in the site, among all those ads, I saw that you have to read the first article found on the main page and then to click to the second article. After viewing the second article, you could move on to the third and so on. Luckily for those who use that site (I wonder who, besides the administrator of the site), there was a Search box, where you could enter a keyword. So, if you wanted to read a certain article about X, you should have typed X in the Search box. Please, don’t do that with your own site. Have pitty of it. Provide a category list for your readers and don’t give away the Archives feature. You can leave behind all those ads and show a little more respect to the reader.
Try to speak of something unique. I know I have said that in my previous article, but I will repeat it. If you keep talking about how to make money online, without working not even a single hour, you will not be visited too long by readers. They will see what it is to be seen on your site and they will leave. That’s about it with your blog. you may risk of creating a bad name for yourself if you write about these things. Think that you can be asked by a potential employer if you have a site. Some don’t even ask, because they can find all the information they need online, just by typing your name on Google. If they see that your blog is about making money online, my opinion is that they will search for another employee, a more suitable one for the job. If you write about woods, plants, creative writing, if you write poems, the situation changes in good and you could even get a white ball for having such a great site.
